Diablo III's Demon Hunter revealed at Blizzcon

This weekend, night elves and space marines alike descended upon Anaheim, California to share their love of all things Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo. The event was Blizzcon, an annual celebration held by PC developer Blizzard, with news, live music and playable games.

While World of Warcraft and the recently-released Starcraft IIgot some attention, upcoming action RPG Diablo III was undoubtedly the star of the show. Blizzard revealed the game’s final playable class, took the wraps off the multiplayer mode and hinted a potential beta.

Diablo III players will be able to don the hood and armour of the Demon Hunter, the fifth and final class in the game after the wizard, witch doctor, monk and barbarian. She looks pretty deadly, with an arsenal of dangerous contraptions and thirst for vengeance against demons. You can also take the Demon Hunter, and her four buddies, into arena style deathmatch battles online.

The game’s lead designer, Jay Wilson, toldG4 that the game will have a beta, but right now it's limited to “Blizzard friends and family”. Still, with WoW and StarCraft, the developer has a long history of allowing open and inclusive betas before launch. Disappointingly, unlike StarCraft II, modding won’t be officially supported by the game’s tools, so any tinkering or fan made levels will require a touch of hacking to implement.

Those hankering for the next StarCraft II expansion shouldn’t hold their breath. Producer Chris Sigaty revealed that the Zerg-based sequel, Heart of the Swarm, will likely take until the end of 2011, if not later, to finish up. In the meantime, Blizzard wants to focus on Battle.net (the online service for multiplayer StarCraft) and issue smaller, incremental updates like featured replays and additional competitive ladders.

Even further out is any reveal or mention of the company’s next MMO. While World of Warcraftis the world’s most popular massive online RPG, holding more than 62 percent of the subscription market with its mammoth 12 million subscribers, you won’t see a new online game for at least a couple of years. The developer says 2012 is the earliest we’ll hear about a new game.

However, Blizzard is still releasing expansions for World of Warcraft. Cataclysmcomes out December 7th, and for the first time, you’ll be able to download it before it hits shops. A fourth pack is already planned and, according to the developer, is "pretty f’ing awesome".